Field Trip

When I was a child in school ,field trips were one of the highlights of my life. I remember trips to the science center, the planetarium, and the zoo. To Ballet, the symphony, and the theatre. To Charleston and once in middle school, to New Orleans. As an adult, I’ve had the incredible blessing of traveling and living in some pretty interesting places. God has placed in me the heart of wanderer, a love for the open road, and a passion to discover whatever there is to be found in a place. Over the past couple of years I have reinstated my own sort of field trips. On days off from work I try to find a new place to explore. I go to museums, interesting neighborhoods, markets, city centers, and rural villages. Sometimes I make out a plan or sometimes I just get in the car (or on my bike or the train) and go. Sometimes I start with one plan and then do something entirely different.

A few weeks ago, was one such field trip. I drove down the coast to Monterey to visit the aquarium. I spent hours wandering through this beautiful underwater world, pressing my nose against the glass as the fish swam by, petting starfish , sea cucumbers, and rock crabs in the touch pool, and thanking God for all the cool creatures that he made. Afterwards I walked down to the beach and took my shoes off and let the cold pacific ocean wash over my feet and the sand squish between my toes. I sat on the rocks and watched the waves and prayed to God that I would never lose this childlike wonder at his creation.

As I walked back to my car, trying to decide if I was going to drive back home, it occurred to me that I was only another hour from Big Sur State Park. It was just after 3pm which would put me there in time to watch the sunset. I drove the 50 or so miles along the winding, oceanside cliffs to arrive at an almost deserted park. I spent the next hour writing in my journal and chatting with God about how beautiful and awesome this place was. And then he gave me one of the most beautiful sunsets I’d ever seen. It crept up on me. At first I thought it wasn’t going to be very vibrant, but slowly the sky changed to brilliant, almost violent shades of orange and red. I couldn’t wipe the smile from my face as I watched the sun sink into the ocean, the waves crashing below me, and not human voice to be heard above it.

Notes from the forest

I'm not sure how to begin this post. There is much that I would like to say about my life and recent experiences. Currently I am sitting in a coffee shop in Santa Cruz because we have no power at camp. This is the third day without power and it isn't really looking like it will be restored anytime soon. The power outage was caused by a giant redwood tree that fell across the road. Not only did it knock out the power, but it also blocked the road. The road i live on is currently closed. Lucky for me, the tree fell across two very high embankments creating a sort of tunnel with plenty of room for my car to fit beneath. While technically the road is closed and technically I am not supposed to drive under the tree, I have chosen to disregard this and do it anyway. Something that I have learned about myself recently is I don't like being trapped. Okay, so no one likes being trapped, but most people could spend a few days in the woods with the roads closed and not feel like they were going to suffacate. I was completely freaking out from this feeling of not being able to leave if I wanted. I'm beginning to wonder if this isn't some deeper psychological issue since I'm pretty sure it could be applied to pretty much all of my dating relationships as well. Anyway back to the downed tree and no power. Being at camp isn't the perfect little community that I envisioned when I moved out here. Don't get my wrong, the people are amazing! I love everyone of the people who lives out here, but I'm in a bit of an awkward position because it is all couples. Recently my roommate has started dating another staff member, bringing the total number of unattached individuals over the age of 11 to 1 (that would be me in case you missed that.) Now, I've gotten pretty good at the whole single thing (remember the whole not liking to be trapped thing), but seriously power outage, candlelite rooms, and a bunch of couples = GAG! When I told my mother about how much I was hating this poweroutage, she reminded me that I dealt with the same thing when I was in Africa. But in Africa I was in a social setting living with lots of people my age who weren't dating each other. Playing board games by candlelight didn't feel like being a chaperone on someone else's date and it was Africa and Africa is just different. (Also mother, I would like to remind you that I did have a freak out in Africa the first time and I did hate it and I did want to come home. So there!) Anyway, that is what is happening these days. I've been questioning a lot lately whether this is where I am really supposed to be. It seemed like such a perfect thing, but it has been so much harder than I thought. Living in such an isolated setting isn't as fun as I thought and I've had a harder time connecting here than I expected. I'm doing lots of things, but i feel like I'm just doing things, but not really getting past the surface. I know this takes time, and waiting is something I'm not so good at. I think my lifestyle for the last few years is catching up with me.

Office Conversations

Sean: Michelle, you are a saint (I made copies for him...It's kind of my job)
Michelle: Yes, I know. I'm heading to the Vatican next week.
Sean: Oh, yeah to be cauterized.
Michelle: (stares blankly at him) Wait, I think you mean "Canonized."
Sean: Oh, what's cauterized.
Michelle: I think that's like when you burn a wound shut.
Sean: Well it's almost the same thing.
Me: Yeah, Sean, It's got a C and an A and a zed.

Things better left unsaid....until after you are already here....

After my internship with Invisible Children I was offered a job as the Office Assistant for a Christian Camp and Retreat Facility in Northern California. It was an offer that was too good to refuse. I had already fallen in love with the people and the place. Back to California it was...

My mom and I drove across America together. 12 states in 4 days (South Carolina, Georgia, Tennessee, Kentucky, Illinois, Missouri, Kansas, Nebraska, Wyoming, Utah, Nevada, California). Remarkable uneventful and fight free. Mom drove on mountain roads near Lake Tahoe and thereafter made a vow never to drive in California again (thanks Mom!). We traded off driving in the big cities. Of course all the big California cities were after Tahoe so guess who got to drive those. Driving in California is like driving in rush hour traffic in Atlanta....all the time. We don't want to talk about rush hour.

So anyway that was last week, now I am a resident of Boulder Creek, California. Boulder Creek is a small town in the Santa Cruz mountains between Santa Cruz and San Francisco. Now when I say small town, I don't mean Aiken, South Carolina small town. I mean like SMALL town. (I can't even think of one small enough that people would have heard of.) Today I drove past the city limit sign and it said the population was 4084. Now I should clarify, I don't actually live in the town of Boulder Creek I live about 5 miles further up the mountain in Big Basic Redwood State Park. Before I insert any further sarcasm, I should state that I live in one of the most beautiful places in the world. For those of you who have been to PBC imagine getting to be surrouned by that kind of beauty all year long. It's so beautiful it is almost overwhelming. That being said there are some hidden shall we say hazards that my fellow staff members (neighbors and friends) failed to mention. Here is what I have learned so far...

1. It is quiet....like really quiet...like something big and scary is following you in the dark quiet. The other day I decided to go "hiking" (aka for a walk on a trail inside camp property). I got out of visual contact with camp buildings and started to realize how quiet it was. Then it seemed to quiet. And then I started remembering a comment someone made about sensing a mountain lion. And then I started to convince myself that it was unnaturally quiet. An image flashed in my mind of a big, scary mountain lion emerging out of the forest to eat me. At this point i decided I had had enough exercise for the day.

2. There is no cable tv.
(I have come to realize that Netflix may actually be man's greatest invention.)

3. The nearest real grocery store is 30 minutes away. (There is a community market that is about 10 minutes away, but it only sells organic found, which turns out translates to "ridiculously expensive."

4. The nearest book store is 40 minutes away (this alone might kill me. I'll be accepting amazon.com giftcards for my birthday and Christmas)

5. Mice.....apparently they like cars. As in they like to make nests in them AND eat the wiring in them. (This I have not yet experienced, but I am paranoid. I was advised to periodically check under the hood of my car to make sure they aren't making nests in there. Right after this I went to check...it took me 15 minutes to figure out how to open the hood of my car. I think I was supposed to know how to do that a long time ago. Oops!)

6. There is no cell service out here. (thankfully the camp has wifi so I can facebook and frequently update my blog...yeah right...)

These are my observations for week 1. With as much "quiet time" as I have out here, I hope to do a little better at this blogging thing. We shall see.

These things that I've done....

So since my last post I have...

...spent 6 weeks traveling around northern California in a van with 3 of my friends...

....spoke on stage in front of thousands of people over the course of the summer...

....visited Yosemite....and Sequoia...and Big Sur....

....driven across the Golden Gate Bridge at least 7 times....

....visited Salvation Mountain and the Salton Sea (if you have seen Into the Wild you know what this is)...

.... driven a 12 passenger van....

....seen a bear....in the wild...

.....slept in a van (see above for reason)...

.... watched a baby sea lion vomit on its brother...

... watched the sun rise over the San Francisco Bay...

....fallen in love with a place...

... grown to love people like a family....

....gotten a grown up job....

..... road tripped from South Carolina to California with my mom...

.... moved to California.